Craft brewers are teaming up to take on Big Beer

Every day, it seems like craft brewers are performing new acts of
resistance against the giants of the beer industry.

On Tuesday, two major craft
brewers, Victory Brewing Company and Southern Tier Brewing,
joined forces under parent company Artisanal Brewing Ventures
(ABV) to better compete in a category Big Beer is determined to
dominate.

“As the first major transaction
of 2016 within the rapidly evolving craft beer industry, this
union presents a new model for craft beer partnerships by
preserving brewery independence while pooling deep collective
resources,” the company wrote in a press release announcing the
merger.

The merger makes ABV one of the
top 15 largest craft brewing companies in the US, with combined
2015 shipments of over 250,000 barrels.

The brewers’ reason for merging
is clear — fear of the rising influence of huge beer
companies in the craft beer industry.

Victory co-founders Bill Covaleski and Ron
BarchetVictory Brewing
Co.

"The craft beer community is at
its most critical moment since its inception as larger brewing
corporations have bought into our grassroots movement,
irrevocably changing the marketplace," Victory founder and
brewmaster Bill Covaleski said in a statement. "Like-minded
brewers such as Victory and Southern Tier can preserve our
character, culture and products by banding together."

Victory and Southern Tier aren’t
alone in their concern that Big Beer’s recent craft beer
acquisitions signal a treacherous time for the independent
brewing industry.

"The industrial giants that
worked for decades to marginalize our segment have found their
tactics ineffective," Greg Koch, CEO and co-founder of San
Diego-based Stone Brewing Co.,wrote recently in The San Diego
Union-Tribune. "So, Big Beer decided it’s time for an
age-old strategy: Purchase. Control. Obfuscate."

Koch points to three recent
acquisitions of Southern California-based craft brewers by major
companies (Ballast Point to Constellation Brands, Saint Archer to
MillerCoors, and Golden Road to Anheuser-Busch InBev) as evidence
of this attempted takeover.

According to Koch, these
acquisitions corrupt the intentions of craft beer. While
independent brewers bring about innovation and creativity, Koch
argues in the hands of big companies, these brands' missions
become reliant on the bottom line.

Around the world, independent
brewers are fighting against major beer companies’ attempts to
take over the craft market.

"Big beer advertising is
b-------," BrewDog said in a press release. "If you have to spend
millions of pounds on ad campaigns to get people to drink your
beer, the brewing is probably being neglected."

Companies like AB InBev have
millions of dollars to spend on craft beer acquisitions — and,
increasingly, are doing just that.

While AB InBev and MillerCoors
still make up 72% of all US beer sales, craft beer has been
rapidly growing. As a result, instead of simply ignoring craft
beer as a niche market, Big Beer has gone on the attack.

The answer is no, as long as
these craft brewers have any say in the matter.

"The ideologies that Steve
[Wagner, Koch's business partner] and I have been
able to incorporate into Stone Brewing are of incalculable value
to us, and selling our company to Big Beer isnotin our future," Koch writes at the end of his
article. "No matter the size of the check. Period."

It looks like customers are on
Koch's side of the issue. According to Bloomberg, six out of 10 drinkersbelieve a brewer’s
independence is important when picking a craft
beer.

In other words, Big Beer can buy
craft brewers — but they may not be able to sell "craft" beer to
customers.